Apple’s New Car System Turns Your Dashboard Into an iPhone Accessory

Apple’s CarPlay looks like a slick, Siri-enabled way to interact with your iPhone in the car. While not a standalone in-car operating system, it is a “second screen” iOS interface optimized for the car — one that allows for deeper integration with iOS devices than any in-car system to date. This should make the creators of full-featured infotainment systems very nervous.

The system will debut at the Geneva International Motor Show this week, and new cars from Mercedes, Volvo, and Ferrari will ship with CarPlay built in. Or make that half of CarPlay built in: In addition to a CarPlay-enabled car, you’ll need an iPhone with an upcoming iOS 7 update to use it. According to Apple, the system only works with Lightning-connector iPhones — you’re limited to using the system with the iPhone 5, 5s, and 5c — that will need to be connected to the car in order for the features to work.

Think of it as a car-infotainment system by proxy, because everything’s still running through the iPhone. For the screen mirroring and car-touchscreen interaction with the phone, CarPlay uses a system based on streaming H.264 video. A Volvo press release mentioned that Wi-Fi connectivity is planned for its own implementation of CarPlay, but the real brains of the system — the iPhone itself — will need to stay physically tethered via a Lightning cable for now.

That physical connection will offer much deeper integration than things like the Siri Eyes Free system found in Chevy cars, which only requires Bluetooth connectivity. In CarPlay, as in Siri Eyes Free, Apple’s voice-control system can read messages aloud and receive voice dictation as you drive. But with the CarPlay system, you can get turn-by-turn directions from Apple Maps while navigation information appears on the big screen. Your car’s touchscreen console will become an in-car extension of the iPhone screen, providing access to certain third-party apps on a larger, less-distracting display (Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Beats Radio, among others). You’ll see familiar iOS icons and have a better idea of what does what.

Indeed, this is really what makes Apple’s announcement so compelling. Instead of today’s fragmented universe of in-car infotainment systems and sometimes-kludgy interfaces, some cars will now have a combination of Apple’s proven design chops, the now-familiar iOS interface, and what should be a rich in-car app ecosystem. You’ll be able to use an Apple-designed interface for navigating music, maps, and other iPhone features in your car — via voice, touchscreen, or the buttons and knobs on the steering wheel and console.

For many in-car infotainment systems, that could make CarPlay a service provider. As explained in WIRED’s analysis of Apple’s iOS for the Car demo at last year’s WWDC, many carmakers offer basic, bare-bones in-car infotainment systems. CarPlay could be a centerpiece for future in-car offerings. Among those car manufacturers, Honda, Hyundai, and Jaguar are slated to have CarPlay-enabled cars coming out later in 2014.

(One interesting side note: If you’re looking for a dual-boot car, you might be best off buying a Honda or a Hyundai in the near future. Both of those carmakers are listed as being part of the 2014 CarPlay lineup and are also members of the Android-focused Open Automotive Alliance.)

Of course, CarPlay’s reliance on Apple’s own core apps is a double-edged sword. On one hand, the ability to develop apps for an already successful platform with a loyal user base will be an attractive proposition for developers. On the other hand, sometimes-frustrating core services, like Apple Maps and Siri, will certainly need to improve in order for CarPlay to realize its full in-car potential. It will also be interesting to see whether apps that offer competing functionalities — Google Maps, most notably — will be allowed to run on the in-car arm of Apple’s platform.

It’s also possible that this is simply Apple kicking the tires on the in-car OS game before they really step on the gas. Remember the Motorola Rokr E1? That “iTunes phone” came out a few years before the first iPhone. Similarly, this could be an example of the company fine-tuning its in-car interface, app presentation, and services before launching its own full-fledged in-car platform.

In the meantime, it really doesn’t matter that this isn’t a “true” in-car OS — in fact, it may have key advantages compared to a full-bore Apple OS for cars. In terms of functionality and interface for iPhone users, it’ll look like a duck and act like a duck. If it’s a success, factory-installed in-car systems of the future will simply be “dumb terminals,” relying on connected mobile devices for all the entertainment features. That’s probably a great thing for both consumers and developers.

For the foreseeable future, you’ll still have to buy a car that has the CarPlay features built into it instead of being able to add them down the line. There haven’t been any announcements about aftermarket consoles or add-ons that include CarPlay functionality.